Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To have a poor crop/harvest: To experience a significantly lower agricultural yield than expected or average for a growing season.
   • To have a crop failure: To experience a situation where crops largely fail to produce a viable harvest, often due to adverse conditions.

Usage Examples

• Verb phrase:
  • Năm nay nhiều vùng bị hạn hán nên mất mùa. (This year, many regions have a poor crop due to drought.)
  • Nông dân lo lắng vì có thể mất mùa lúa. (Farmers are worried because the rice crop might fail.)
  • Mất mùa liên tiếp khiến đời sống người dân khó khăn. (Consecutive crop failures make the people's lives difficult.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase is often used in a broader socio-economic context to describe the resulting hardship, not just the agricultural event itself.
  • Câu chuyện về những vùng đất hay mất mùa. (The story of lands that frequently suffer crop failures.)

Variants and Related Words

• Được mùa (verb phrase): to have a bumper/good harvest.

  • Năm ngoái nông dân được mùa cà phê. (Last year, farmers had a bumper coffee crop.)

• Thất thu (verb): to suffer a loss (of income), more general than agricultural.

  • Công ty thất thu lớn do khủng hoảng. (The company suffered a major loss due to the crisis.)

Synonyms

• To have a bad harvest: The most direct synonym.
• To have a crop failure: Emphasizes a severe, near-total loss.
• To have a poor yield: More technical, focusing on output.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Mất mùa được mùa ăn chắc: An idiom meaning "In a bad harvest or a good harvest, eat conservatively," advising prudence in both bad and good times.

  • Ông bà ta dạy "mất mùa được mùa ăn chắc". (Our elders taught, "in lean or abundant years, eat modestly.")

• Mất mùa nào, được mùa ấy: A saying similar to "What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts," indicating that losses and gains balance out.

  • Kinh doanh cũng có lúc thua lỗ, mất mùa nào, được mùa ấy. (In business, there are times of loss; what you lose one time, you gain another.)

1. to have a poor crop